Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
The successful bidders for slots in the $2 million The Eureka harness race will be announced by Harness Racing Australia tomorrow. I hate to spoil their party, but CEO Andrew Kelly won’t answer my calls or messages, and contempt breeds no respect, so oh well. Here they are. The only possibility of change is if […]
There were just four horses entered for the Free For All at Gloucester Park last night, despite the very attractive $30 000 prizemoney pool on offer. Two of them were trained by Debra Lewis. You need five acceptances to hold a race. Get any less and the race is abandoned. So RWWA extended the nominations. One […]
There is a huge amount of head scratching going on in harness racing circles all around Australia following Monday’s announcement of the final field for next month’s Australian Harness Driver’s Championship being run in South Australia. No-one quibbles with the selection of perennial champion driver Dani Hill as the host State’s first representative, but plenty […]
I have a confession to make. I’ve talked to hundred of people about the HRA Stallion Levy, many of them major players in the game, and including HRA CEO Andrew Kelly, and based on these discussions I have formed various positions about the Yes/No argument for its introducion. But I have never really known what […]
It wasn’t my preference to announce this on a public forum. I tried to tell Harness Racing Australia’s CEO Andrew Kelly – who just weeks before had invited me to attend the launch of the Eureka slot race – direct, but for some reason he wouldn’t take or return my calls. Here is the bad news. […]
Harness Racing Australia’s silence on the continuing employment of Scott Steele at the Albion Park club has been deafening. This is the peak body of a sport that, despite various waves of discrimination, has been trailblazer for the participation of women. As long ago as 1917 women were driving against and beating men, although it […]
Harness Racing Australia are introducing an across the board levy on Stallions service fees. The figure has not been publicly released yet, but it’s likely to be in the range of 10-15 percent. A large part of the revenue raised is to be redirected to funding a new slot race, which is odd because most […]
Last month Harness Racing NSW endorsed some rule changes made by Harness Racing Australia, and gave them the force of law. We have given some of the new rules nicknames. Here they are. The Josh Gallagher Rule Disqualification Add new Rule 66(i) 66. A horse may be disqualified from a race or placed in a […]
Ben ‘Chainsaw’ Yole winning the Australian Trainer’s Premiership tell us all we need to know about the current state of harness racing outside of Victoria, and to a degree (a small degree) Western Australia. That a bozo from Tasmania who couldn’t train a rat to run up a drain pipe can be crowned the King […]
The word floating around the trot tracks is that there are two, perhaps three, major stables that have been offered indemnities against prosecution if they tip the bucket on others who have been buying and using performance enhancing drugs in Australian racing. At least one of the names is a Kiwi living and working in […]
